Which is why kids – and adults – can whittle away the hours completely absorbed in their screens, seemingly oblivious to the outside world or the racing hands of the clock. And when their screen time ends, they struggle to transition to other activities…

…which can translate into arguments, temper tantrum or worse (not to mention repetitive nagging by parents at their wits end having asked their child to put down the tablet 5 times).

A Universal Issue

A study by Action for Children found nearly 1-in-4 parents struggle with screen time. In fact, according to the survey, screen time struggles actually eclipsed other common parenting friction points including homework (10%) and bedtime routine (17%). At the same time, parents are paediatricians worry kids aren’t physically active enough…

…or have fewer and fewer off-screen hobbies and interests. So, what can parents do?

Healthy Screen Habits

Essentially, tackling screen time is all about developing healthy screen habits. It’s about setting screen time limits, so your kids don’t spend all day on screens. And when they’re on them, striking a balance between creative (e.g. coding, painting and design apps) and purely recreational screen time (e.g. gaming or social media).

Finally, it’s about balancing on-screen activities with unplugged ones (and encouraging more of the latter – more on that in today’s post). You can learn more about screen time and healthy screen habits in our ‘Preparing Your Kids for Screen Time Success series. Posts include:

But today’s blog is all about off-screen activities. Because one way of reducing your child’s excessive screen time is through encouraging them to do more unplugged activities. And giving them plenty of ideas and inspiration of how to spend their off-screen time.